today we went to france! … which sounds like a bit of a big deal, but really all it took was a twenty minute ferry ride across the lake. we rode the ferry to a small medieval village called yvoire, which sits right on the lake, but on the french side. its famous because the village looks pretty much the way it did in the 17th century, albeit with more tourists and all the trappings that go along with it. its still an absolutely gorgeous place though!

as is usually the case, nayou packed his bag to take with him. this dude is a real packrat – every time we go somewhere he spends ages stuffing his backpack with all kinds of things. cars, twigs, leaves, books, it all has to come along! pity he forgot to change out of his pjs 🙂

we left from nyon, which is the next village up the lake from where we are. we come to nyon quite a bit to play at the park, see friends and hang out at their amazing market. nayou has been jonesing a ride on the ferry ever since we got here so he was very exicted.

once we got to yvoire we couldn’t stop ooh-ing and aah-ing at everything. you realise where disneyland got their inspiration from when they were making their attractions – its almost too perfect!

of course since we were in france we had to have a baguette with cheese and pickles. or rather, nayou had a baguette with cheese and pickles, and his parents scrounged for the crumbs.

aaaand, here are some other random photos from the last couple of days.

here is an example of something positive that facebook has done for me – this photo is of me and olivier. we used to play together when we were living in geneva waaay back in the day. i was about four years old! he found out we were in geneva on facebook and got in touch. that resulted in the whole family coming over for dinner on sunday for a very happy reunion! we’re pretty much the same, just hairier.

just went to see inception with my parents and we had our collective minds blown! we might have been a little biased though 😉

amazing job, aya! we’re so proud of you!

we are approaching our one month mark in geneva which is hard to believe. this place is so relaxing time just seems to slip on by. its not like we’re going out and doing all sorts of crazy activities – the bulk of our time is spent in the house and garden, with sorties to the nearby park or soccer field to break things up. in writing this seems pitifully boring and yet in reality its a very peaceful and fun time for us. nayou in particular has been loving the smaller pleasures that life has to offer, like walking nekkid:

hiding in boxes:

collecting leaves (note appropriately manly work overalls augmented with fishing rod):

terrorising the neighbourhood on his bike:

and driving trains:

there have also been what he would consider more major events, such as getting a ride in a tractor that was baling hay:

and getting a visit from his newly minted five month old cousin charlotte (technically first cousin once removed, but who’s splitting hairs? baby charlotte is the daughter of my cousin adam and his wife marion. they live in london and popped over last weekend to hang out. nayou was very enamoured with charlotte, giving her cuddles and asking for her first thing in the morning. we did detect more than a hint of jealousy though once he realised he wasn’t the center of attention anymore! it was cool to see adam as a dad. especially to admire his aussie feeding style. no amount of time in london is going to take that out of him!

charlotte is really alert and super curious. she’s also very friendly. we all had good cuddle time with her and she responded with coos and dribbles, just like a good baby should!

on sunday we all went on a hike in st. cergue, which is possibly one of the most gorgeous spots on earth. i mean seriously, you wouldn’t even find a postcard that looks as good as this place.

so those are the haps in our corner of the globe for now. i’ll leave you with one of those pesky chickens that nayou loves to chase around.

the clan currently residing in the tanimura hotel grew by one last week with the arrival of hana! she came from london to hang out for ten days. nayou is very fond of her and spent little time attaching himself to her side.

this morning i found an old photo album on the kitchen table. the album had a bunch of my photos, documenting my life from birth until about 2001 when i graduated from university. it was cool looking at my first few years and thinking about my parents going through the same things brenda and i are now, but the main thing i noticed was that i had really embarassing hair styles. i’ve done them all – the bowl cut, the weird spiky cut, the long bit over the eye almost-emo cut, and the obligatory long hair metal-head phase. at least you don’t really have a say in your childhood hair style, but i wonder if nayou is going to look back on his mullet and be embarassed too? (full disclosure: as of this writing, i haven’t cut my hair in over five months and i find myself in yet another probably embarassing hair stage of my life)

the gourmet streak that started at the epitos’ house has continued with aplomb here. my mum has been cooking up super yummy food with stuff  from her garden. nayou’s been learning the tricks of the trade so hopefully he will be fixing us our meals soon. its never too young to start working in the kitchen.

and on that same note, the ladies have been hard at work in front of the sewing machine as well. nayou’s got a new pair of pants, i’ve got a new wallet and we have several pretty tablecloths. if you need anything, shoot me an email and i’ll crack my whip.